test_server

This module provides support for test suite authors.

The test_server module aids the test suite author by providing
various support functions. The supported functionality includes:

Logging and timestamping
Capturing output to stdout
Retrieving and flushing the message queue of a process
Watchdog timers, process sleep, time measurement and unit
conversion
Private scratch directory for all test suites
Start and stop of slave- or peer nodes

For more information on how to write test cases and for
examples, please see the Test Server User's Guide.

TEST SUITE SUPPORT FUNCTIONS

os_type() -> OSType

This function can be called on controller or target node, and
it will always return the OS type of the target node.

fail()

fail(Reason)

Reason = term()

The reason why the test case failed.

This will make the test suite fail with a given reason, or
with suite_failed if no reason was given. Use this
function if you want to terminate a test case, as this will
make it easier to read the log- and HTML files. Reason
will appear in the comment field in the HTML log.

timetrap(Timout) -> Handle

Timeout = integer() | {hours,H} | {minutes,M} | {seconds,S}

H = M = S = integer()

Pid = pid()

The process that is to be timetrapped (self()by default)

Sets up a time trap for the current process. An expired
timetrap kills the process with reason
timetrap_timeout. The returned handle is to be given
as argument to timetrap_cancel before the timetrap
expires. If Timeout is an integer, it is expected to
be milliseconds.

Note!

If the current process is trapping exits, it will not be killed
by the exit signal with reason timetrap_timeout.
If this happens, the process will be sent an exit signal
with reason kill 10 seconds later which will kill the
process. Information about the timetrap timeout will in
this case not be found in the test logs. However, the
error_logger will be sent a warning.

timetrap_cancel(Handle) -> ok

Handle = term()

Handle returned from timetrap

This function cancels a timetrap. This must be done before
the timetrap expires.

timetrap_scale_factor() -> ScaleFactor

ScaleFactor = integer()

This function returns the scale factor by which all timetraps
are scaled. It is normally 1, but can be greater than 1 if
the test_server is running cover, using a larger amount of
scheduler threads than the amount of logical processors on the
system, running under purify, valgrind or in a debug-compiled
emulator. The scale factor can be used if you need to scale you
own timeouts in test cases with same factor as the test_server
uses.

sleep(MSecs) -> ok

MSecs = integer() | float() | infinity

The number of milliseconds to sleep

This function suspends the calling process for at least the
supplied number of milliseconds. There are two major reasons
why you should use this function instead of
timer:sleep, the first being that the module
timer may be unavailable at the time the test suite is
run, and the second that it also accepts floating point
numbers.

adjusted_sleep(MSecs) -> ok

MSecs = integer() | float() | infinity

The default number of milliseconds to sleep

This function suspends the calling process for at least the
supplied number of milliseconds. The function behaves the same
way as test_server:sleep/1, only MSecs
will be multiplied by the 'multiply_timetraps' value, if set,
and also automatically scaled up if 'scale_timetraps' is set
to true (which it is by default).

hours(N) -> MSecs

minutes(N) -> MSecs

seconds(N) -> MSecs

N = integer()

Value to convert to milliseconds.

Theese functions convert N number of hours, minutes
or seconds into milliseconds.

Use this function when you want to
test_server:sleep/1 for a number of seconds, minutes or
hours(!).

format(Format) -> ok

format(Format, Args)

format(Pri, Format)

format(Pri, Format, Args)

Format = string()

Format as described for io_:format.

Args = list()

List of arguments to format.

Formats output just like io:format but sends the
formatted string to a logfile. If the urgency value,
Pri, is lower than some threshold value, it will also
be written to the test person's console. Default urgency is
50, default threshold for display on the console is 1.

Typically, the test person don't want to see everything a
test suite outputs, but is merely interested in if the test
cases succeeded or not, which the test server tells him. If he
would like to see more, he could manually change the threshold
values by using the test_server_ctrl:set_levels/3
function.

capture_start() -> ok

capture_stop() -> ok

capture_get() -> list()

These functions makes it possible to capture all output to
stdout from a process started by the test suite. The list of
characters captured can be purged by using capture_get.

messages_get() -> list()

This function will empty and return all the messages
currently in the calling process' message queue.

timecall(M, F, A) -> {Time, Value}

M = atom()

The name of the module where the function resides.

F = atom()

The name of the function to call in the module.

A = list()

The arguments to supply the called function.

Time = integer()

The number of seconds it took to call the function.

Value = term()

Value returned from the called function.

This function measures the time (in seconds) it takes to
call a certain function. The function call is not
caught within a catch.

Repeatedly evaluates the given function until it succeeds
(doesn't crash) M times. If, after N times, M successful
attempts have not been accomplished, the process crashes with
reason {m_out_of_n_failed, {R,left_to_do}}, where R indicates
how many cases that was still to be successfully completed.

For example:

m_out_of_n(1,4,fun() -> tricky_test_case() end)
Tries to run tricky_test_case() up to 4 times, and is
happy if it succeeds once.

m_out_of_n(7,8,fun() -> clock_sanity_check() end)
Tries running clock_sanity_check() up to 8 times,and
allows the function to fail once. This might be useful if
clock_sanity_check/0 is known to fail if the clock crosses an
hour boundary during the test (and the up to 8 test runs could
never cross 2 boundaries)

Spawns a new process that calls MFA. The call is considered
successful if the call crashes with the gives reason
(Crash) or any reason if not specified. The call must
terminate within the given time (default infinity), or
it is considered a failure.

temp_name(Stem) -> Name

Stem = string()

Returns a unique filename starting with Stem with
enough extra characters appended to make up a unique
filename. The filename returned is guaranteed not to exist in
the filesystem at the time of the call.

break(Comment) -> ok

Comment = string()

Comment is a string which will be written in
the shell, e.g. explaining what to do.

This function will cancel all timetraps and pause the
execution of the test case until the user executes the
continue/0 function. It gives the user the opportunity
to interact with the erlang node running the tests, e.g. for
debugging purposes or for manually executing a part of the
test case.

When the break/1 function is called, the shell will
look something like this:

--- SEMIAUTOMATIC TESTING ---
The test case executes on process <0.51.0>
"Here is a comment, it could e.g. instruct to pull out a card"
-----------------------------
Continue with --> test_server:continue().

The user can now interact with the erlang node, and when
ready call test_server:continue().

Note that this function can not be used if the test is
executed with ts:run/0/1/2/3/4 in batch mode.

continue() -> ok

This function must be called in order to continue after a
test case has called break/1.

run_on_shielded_node(Fun, CArgs) -> term()

Fun = function() (arity 0)

Function to execute on the shielded node.

CArg = string()

Extra command line arguments to use when starting the shielded node.

Fun is executed in a process on a temporarily created
hidden node with a proxy for communication with the test server
node. The node is called a shielded node (should have been called
a shield node). If Fun is successfully executed, the result
is returned. A peer node (see start_node/3) started from
the shielded node will be shielded from test server node, i.e.
they will not be aware of each other. This is useful when you want
to start nodes from earlier OTP releases than the OTP release of
the test server node.

Nodes from an earlier OTP release can normally not be started
if the test server hasn't been started in compatibility mode
(see the +R flag in the erl(1) documentation) of
an earlier release. If a shielded node is started in compatibility
mode of an earlier OTP release than the OTP release of the test
server node, the shielded node can start nodes of an earlier OTP
release.

Note!

You must make sure that nodes started by the shielded
node never communicate directly with the test server node.

start_node(Name, Type, Options) -> {ok, Node} | {error, Reason}

This functions starts a node, possibly on a remote machine,
and guarantees cross architecture transparency. Type is set to
either slave or peer.

slave means that the new node will have a master,
i.e. the slave node will terminate if the master terminates,
TTY output produced on the slave will be sent back to the
master node and file I/O is done via the master. The master is
normally the target node unless the target is itself a slave.

peer means that the new node is an independent node
with no master.

Options is a tuplelist which can contain one or more
of

{remote, true}

Start the node on a remote host. If not specified, the
node will be started on the local host (with some
exceptions, as for the case of VxWorks, where
all nodes are started on a remote host). Test cases that
require a remote host will fail with a reasonable comment if
no remote hosts are available at the time they are run.

{args, Arguments}

Arguments passed directly to the node. This is
typically a string appended to the command line.

{wait, false}

Don't wait until the node is up. By default, this
function does not return until the node is up and running,
but this option makes it return as soon as the node start
command is given..
Only valid for peer nodes

{fail_on_error, false}

Returns {error, Reason} rather than failing the
test case.
Only valid for peer nodes. Note that slave nodes always
act as if they had fail_on_error=false

{erl, ReleaseList}

Use an Erlang emulator determined by ReleaseList when
starting nodes, instead of the same emulator as the test
server is running. ReleaseList is a list of specifiers,
where a specifier is either {release, Rel}, {prog, Prog}, or
'this'. Rel is either the name of a release, e.g., "r12b_patched"
or 'latest'. 'this' means using the same emulator as the test
server. Prog is the name of an emulator executable. If the
list has more than one element, one of them is picked
randomly. (Only works on Solaris and Linux, and the test server
gives warnings when it notices that nodes are not of the same
version as itself.)

When specifying this option to run a previous release, use
is_release_available/1 function to test if the given
release is available and skip the test case if not.

In order to avoid compatibility problems (may not appear right
away), use a shielded node (see run_on_shielded_node/2)
when starting nodes from different OTP releases than the test
server.

{cleanup, false}

Tells the test server not to kill this node if it is
still alive after the test case is completed. This is useful
if the same node is to be used by a group of test cases.

{env, Env}

Env should be a list of tuples {Name, Val},
where Name is the name of an environment variable, and
Val is the value it is to have in the started node.
Both Name and Val must be strings. The one
exception is Val being the atom false (in
analogy with os:getenv/1), which removes the
environment variable. Only valid for peer nodes. Not
available on VxWorks.

{start_cover, false}

By default the test server will start cover on all nodes
when the test is run with code coverage analysis. To make
sure cover is not started on a new node, set this option to
false. This can be necessary if the connection to
the node at some point will be broken but the node is
expected to stay alive. The reason is that a remote cover
node can not continue to run without its main node. Another
solution would be to explicitly stop cover on the node
before breaking the connection, but in some situations (if
old code resides in one or more processes) this is not
possible.

stop_node(NodeName) -> bool()

NodeName = term()

Name of the node to stop

This functions stops a node previously started with
start_node/3. Use this function to stop any node you
start, or the test server will produce a warning message in
the test logs, and kill the nodes automatically unless it was
started with the {cleanup, false} option.

is_commercial() -> bool()

This function test whether the emulator is commercially supported
emulator. The tests for a commercially supported emulator could be more
stringent (for instance, a commercial release should always contain
documentation for all applications).

is_release_available(Release) -> bool()

Release = string() | atom()

Release to test for

This function test whether the release given by
Release (for instance, "r12b_patched") is available
on the computer that the test_server controller is running on.
Typically, you should skip the test case if not.

Caution: This function may not be called from the suite
clause of a test case, as the test_server will deadlock.

is_native(Mod) -> bool()

Mod = atom()

A module name

Checks whether the module is natively compiled or not

app_test(App) -> ok | test_server:fail()

app_test(App,Mode)

App = term()

The name of the application to test

Mode = pedantic | tolerant

Default is pedantic

Checks an applications .app file for obvious errors.
The following is checked:

required fields
that all modules specified actually exists
that all requires applications exists
that no module included in the application has export_all
that all modules in the ebin/ dir is included (If
Mode==tolerant this only produces a warning, as all
modules does not have to be included)

comment(Comment) -> ok

Comment = string()

The given String will occur in the comment field of the
table on the HTML result page. If called several times, only
the last comment is printed. comment/1 is also overwritten by
the return value {comment,Comment} from a test case or by
fail/1 (which prints Reason as a comment).

all(suite) -> TestSpec | {skip, Comment}

This function must return the test specification for the
test suite module. The syntax of a test specification is
described in the Test Server User's Guide.

init_per_suite(Config0) -> Config1 | {skip, Comment}

Config0 = Config1 = [tuple()]

Comment = string()

Describes why the suite is skipped

This function is called before all other test cases in the
suite. Config is the configuration which can be modified
here. Whatever is returned from this function is given as
Config to the test cases.

If this function fails, all test cases in the suite will be
skipped.

end_per_suite(Config) -> void()

Config = [tuple()]

This function is called after the last test case in the
suite, and can be used to clean up whatever the test cases
have done. The return value is ignored.

init_per_testcase(Case, Config0) -> Config1 | {skip, Comment}

Case = atom()

Config0 = Config1 = [tuple()]

Comment = string()

Describes why the test case is skipped

This function is called before each test case. The
Case argument is the name of the test case, and
Config is the configuration which can be modified
here. Whatever is returned from this function is given as
Config to the test case.

end_per_testcase(Case, Config) -> void()

Case = atom()

Config = [tuple()]

This function is called after each test case, and can be
used to clean up whatever the test case has done. The return
value is ignored.

Case(doc) -> [Decription]

Case(suite) -> [] | TestSpec | {skip, Comment}

Case(Config) -> {skip, Comment} | {comment, Comment} | Ok

Description = string()

Short description of the test case

TestSpec = list()

Comment = string()

This comment will be printed on the HTML result page

Ok = term()

Config = [tuple()]

Elements from the Config parameter can be read with the ?config macro, see section about test suite support macros

The documentation clause (argument doc) can
be used for automatic generation of test documentation or test
descriptions.

The specification clause (argument spec)
shall return an empty list, the test specification for the
test case or {skip,Comment}. The syntax of a test
specification is described in the Test Server User's Guide.

Note that the specification clause always is executed on the controller host.

The execution clause (argument Config) is
only called if the specification clause returns an empty list.
The execution clause is the real test case. Here you must call
the functions you want to test, and do whatever you need to
check the result. If something fails, make sure the process
crashes or call test_server:fail/0/1 (which also will
cause the process to crash).

You can return {skip,Comment} if you decide not to
run the test case after all, e.g. if it is not applicable on
this platform.

You can return {comment,Comment} if you wish to
print some information in the 'Comment' field on the HTML
result page.

If the execution clause returns anything else, it is
considered a success, unless it is {'EXIT',Reason} or
{'EXIT',Pid,Reason} which can't be distinguished from a
crash, and thus will be considered a failure.

A conf test case is a group of test cases with an
init and a cleanup function. The init and cleanup functions
are also test cases, but they have special rules:

They do not need a specification clause.They must always have the execution clause.They must return the Config parameter, a modified
version of it or {skip,Comment} from the execution clause.The cleanup function may also return a tuple
{return_group_result,Status}, which is used to return the
status of the conf case to Test Server and/or to a conf case on a
higher level. (Status = ok | skipped | failed).init_per_testcase and end_per_testcase are
not called before and after these functions.

TEST SUITE LINE NUMBERS

If a test case fails, the test server can report the exact line
number at which it failed. There are two ways of doing this,
either by using the line macro or by using the
test_server_line parse transform.

The line macro is described under TEST SUITE SUPPORT
MACROS below. The line macro will only report the last line
executed when a test case failed.

The test_server_line parse transform is activated by
including the headerfile test_server_line.hrl in the test
suite. When doing this, it is important that the
test_server_line module is in the code path of the erlang
node compiling the test suite. The parse transform will report a
history of a maximum of 10 lines when a test case
fails. Consecutive lines in the same function are not shown.

The attribute -no_lines(FuncList). can be used in the
test suite to exclude specific functions from the parse
transform. This is necessary e.g. for functions that are executed
on old (i.e. <R10B) OTP releases. FuncList = [{Func,Arity}].

If both the line macro and the parse transform is used in
the same module, the parse transform will overrule the macro.

TEST SUITE SUPPORT MACROS

There are some macros defined in the test_server.hrl
that are quite useful for test suite programmers:

The line macro, is quite
essential when writing test cases. It tells the test server
exactly what line of code that is being executed, so that it can
report this line back if the test case fails. Use this macro at
the beginning of every test case line of code.

The config macro, is used to
retrieve information from the Config variable sent to all
test cases. It is used with two arguments, where the first is the
name of the configuration variable you wish to retrieve, and the
second is the Config variable supplied to the test case
from the test server.

Examples of the line and config macros can be
seen in the Examples chapter in the user's guide.

If the line_trace macro is defined, you will get a
timestamp (erlang:now()) in your minor log for each
line macro in your suite. This way you can at any time see
which line is currently being executed, and when the line was
called.

The line_trace macro can also be used together with the
test_server_line parse transform described above. A
timestamp will then be written for each line in the suite, except
for functions stated in the -no_lines attribute.

The line_trace macro can e.g. be defined as a compile
option, like this:
erlc -W -Dline_trace my_SUITE.erl